After the hell Calen has seen on his way here it was strange to see how... normal everything was here.
Well, not entirely normal, the sky was still red and everyone was frozen in time with terrified or confused expressions, but it was still comparatively normal.
The first thing he noticed was the slow down effect that Koravel mentioned, it was quite different from what he expected.
He could move around freely as long as he didn't exceed certain speed, when he tried to he felt great resistance against his body, as if he was moving through molasses.
So unable to do much about the restriction, he started getting the things he needed from nearby shop stalls at a leisurely pace.
'First off I need a dimensional bag, I think old man Grond had some.'
The shop "adventurer's delight" contained everything one would expect: survival equipment, weapons, armour, maps and hundreds of magical gadgets designed to make the life on the road just a little bit easier.
Calen quickly found the shelf with dimensional bags and grabbed the biggest one, it was supposed to be able to contain a house worth of items.
Armed with almost unlimited storage he started throwing anything that looked even remotely useful into the bag.
A few minutes later the shop looked significantly emptier, but the bag was still as light as ever.
After saying a quick apology to Grond - who stood frozen behind the counter this whole time - he threw the bag over his shoulder and continued to the next shop.
As a mage he didn't have to worry about drinkable water, he could always create as much as he needed, but he wasn't able to summon food from thin air like his master, so food was next on the agenda.
This took quite a while, if he put the food inside the barrier into the dimensional bag it would remain in it's stuck-in-time state until he has taken them out once more, outside of the barrier.
This meant he could put pretty much anything in there, so he did. He cleared four grocery shops before he decided it was enough, and moved on.
Calen walked towards the residential district, as quickly as the weird laws inside of the barrier allowed him to, all the while observing his surroundings.
It was a strange experience, to be the only moving thing in a city this big. It wasn't quite like seeing a picture, since he could influence and interact with his surroundings to a degree.
His pondering stopped when he finally reached Cassian's house, it wasn't a grand manor like one would expect from a family of the guard capitan, but a simple single family house.
It was very well maintained but rather spartan, there were no decorations on the front porch or flowers in the garden, and the walls were painted dull gray.
'That's Ironvale household, no style, all utility.'
As a knight of the Sun kingdom Cassian's father was entitled to a surname, so that everyone would know he's a part of nobility.
Not that he needed it mind you, with a name like 'Vandrel the Oathbound' who in their right mind would question his status.
One would never guess the identity of the inhabitants from the decor though, the insides were as barren as the outside, with only the most necessary furniture and appliances the house looked weirdly empty.
Calen wasn't here to judge the taste of his friend's father of course, but to find Cassian and Elira.
Fortunately, he didn't have to look far - standing in the entrance to the living room were both Elira and Cassian, frozen mid- conversation.
His friend always looked quite imposing, his tall and wide frame accentuated with a handsome face stuck in a perpetually cold and indifferent expression.
With his pale skin, raven black hair and piercing gray eyes he looked like a carbon copy of his father - just without a beard and thirty years younger.
"You have managed to scowl for five hundred years Cass, you'll get wrinkles" he chuckled at his own joke and turned his head to look at Elira.
The girl was pretty much the opposite of Cassian: small in stature and unassuming, her nut-brown skin was dotted with freckles, and her dark brown hair was falling in waves down to the middle of her back.
Her most prominent feature were her big, unnaturally green eyes - no doubt an aftereffect of all the potions her grandfather made her drink as a child to make her 'stronger, smarter and healthier'.
Calen was even offered one of those potions once but he denied, firmly believing that drinks aren't supposed to be green and glowing.
'Now I need to tag them both, should be too complicated.'
The sigils were sticky on their own, wether it was a part of the enchantment or they were simply smeared with glue, he didn't know but it wasn't particularly important.
He quickly stuck them to the backs of both his targets, and went deeper into the house, aiming for Cassian's bedroom.
The room looked just like he remembered: a single bed and a simple wardrobe made from dark wood.
There was also a weapon rack containing Cass' prized greatsword - it's design was as simplistic as everything else in the house, but it was expertly crafted from the best materials available.
Next to the rack was an armour stand displaying a beautiful half-plate, it was polished to perfection and had the Ironvale crest engraved on one of the pauldrons: a sword wrapped in laurels.
Both items were a present from his father for his seventeenth birthday, and Cassian treasured them greatly - even after almost four years of daily usage they still looked brand new.
Calen did his best to not scratch up his friend's equipment as he put them in the bottomless bag.
As he left the building he looked at his soon-to-be companions one last time and said:
"See you on the other side, I guess."
His house wasn't very far so it took him only a couple of minutes to reach it - It looked quite different from his friend's, a tall building built from strange, greyish-blue stone.
It was among the oldest structures in the city, a fitting abode for a powerful Archmage and his apprentices, but as far as the public was concerned it hosted a humble store selling magic scrolls, wands, staves and other arcane paraphernalia.
The signboard above the main entrance proudly proclaimed: "Runes & Relics", and the small sign on the door said "CLOSED" in bold, red font.
The first floor of the building was dedicated entirely to the shop, long shelves filled with enchanted objects stretched from wall to wall.
The only somewhat open space in the whole room was occupied by the engraving table, used when someone commissioned a custom spellcraft.
Calen didn't waste time here since all the scrolls were inscribed with spells he could cast by himself, and he didn't really need a catalyst for casting, so he hopped over the counter and went directly upstairs.
The second floor was where his and Isara's rooms were, although calling them just rooms was a bit disingenuous. Each of them had a full equipped apartment with a bathroom, kitchen, bedroom and a small living space.
He started by going into his half of the floor to retrieve a few items - first, he wanted to take his copy of 'Grand rune dictionary' with him.
Partially to deal with the locked door back at the ruined manor, but it was also bound to be useful any time they encounter magic.
The second thing he wanted to bring with him was a cloak enchanted with a more powerful version of the spell he used to hide his presence, it was large enough to fit two people underneath, should the need arise.
There was also his set of armour, it was a light one made mostly of leather with plate and chainmail only in few places to cover the vital areas.
The last thing he took with him was a strange enchanted dagger his master given him for his twentieth birthday.
He hasn't figured out what the runic inscription were supposed to do yet, but he couldn't just discard a present from an Archmage.
After getting everything he needed he exited his room and stopped in front of Isara's door, he reached for the handle, but then he hesitated.
'Can I just barge in on her like that? What if she was changing? Or taking a bath?'
The thought made the tips of his ears redden a little, but he quickly gathered himself and shook his head.
'I'll apologize later if need be.'
He inhaled deeply, and pushed the door open
Calen saw her immediately - she was sitting in front of a mirror, brushing her long platinum blonde hair. She was dressed, thankfully, but quite lightly.
Her flawless tan skin was obsucured only by a thin sleeveless white tunic and gray linen shorts, but her face distracted him much more than her revealing outfit.
Her eyes were ice blue and almond-shaped, her eyebrows thin and shapely, and her nose was delicate and proportional.
She didn't wear any jewellery, save for small silver earrings in the shape of a crescent moon, and a matching thin chain with charms representing the phases of the moon.
They were a gift from Calen, he had made them himself - with a little help from the local jeweler - and then engraved them with a bunch of protective spells.
Even though she looked quite beautiful, her clothes were ill suited for an adventure in a post apocalyptic, corruption ridden world.
Luckily he wasn't forced to rummage through her wardrobe, because an already assembled outfit was hanging on the sofa in the middle of the room.
He quickly tossed inside his bag, and did the same to the protective robe on the hanger next to the door. It was heavily enchanted, and would protect her from all manner of injuries.
Now he only needed to find her weapon, although it shouldn't prove too difficult.
Just like he thought, it was very easy to locate - on her nightstand laid a beautiful silver dagger with a handle made of onyx and a blade engraved with many runes.
She could use it in a fight quite well, but most of the time it served her as a casting catalyst. He threw it in the bag and finally approached Isara.
Not wasting any time he gently placed the sigil on her back, and turned around ready to leave.
"I'm afraid you never got your day off Isa." he said, and then left the room.
While he planned on raiding his teacher's stash, he had in fact very little hope of actually doing so.
The third and final floor was the domain of Archmage Alarion, it contained his study, laboratory and living quarters.
Calen visited the study many times with Isara for their lessons, but unless they had a scheduled lecture the door to the top floor remained magically sealed most of the time.
He was still going to check though, just in case.
What greeted him at the top of the staircase was a pair of heavy doors, closed shut with a ring o glimmering runes in the middle.
'Shouldn't have wasted time on this.'
He turned around and started making his way downstairs at a leisurely pace.
The trip to the city turned out to be even more fruitful than he expected, they didn't have to worry about food for a couple of weeks and he found everything necessary for survival.
The only thing he didn't have was a weapon for Elira, but he didn't know the girl too well and frankly he was doubtful whether she could even fight.
It wasn't a big problem though, if she wanted a weapon there was a big selection back at Koravel's safehouse and if not, well she was supposed to be a healer anyway.
He exited the shop and started his short walk north, turning his attention to the frozen landscape once more.
It wouldn't be like that forever of course, even the most powerful spells had to end eventually.
The duration of the spell depended solely on the power source, when a person casted a spell they could generally sustain it for a few minutes, maybe hours depending on the complexity.
To cast something that lasted longer one would seek out an external source of magic that the spell could use, in most cases people used various magic-infused minerals, so called 'magic stones'.
Some of them could store truly mindbogglingly amounts of magic that could power any spell for years, decades maybe.
But this barrier... It lasted five centuries. He didn't know what his master used as a powe source, and to be completely honest he didn't want to know.
Each possibility was harrowing and left a bad taste in his mouth, so he would rather not think about it.
His mission was to grow powerful enough to protect the city when the barrier finally breaks.
Ideally, he would like to resolve the whole apocalypse and alien invasion thing before that happens, but realistically it was out of question.
The spell had few years at most, and fighting off an enemy that occupied the entire world could potentially take decades.
All the speculation about the far future was pointless at this point though, he should focus on here and now.
And here and now, he was standing in front of the northern gate.
The gate looked identical to the southern one, down to the desolate landscape of ashen plains beyond it.
When Calen stepped out of the barrier he felt a bizzare sensation, the world sped up around him and then slowed down again, and the cycle repeated itself a few times before it finally stabilised.
'Wierd.'
It left him a bit dizzy, but I'd didn't seem like he was injured or ill in any way.
He waited for his head to stop spinning and then took out the beacon that would summon his companions. Calen didn't have the time to inspect it before, but now was a perfect moment to do so.
The stone itself seemed to be completely ordinary, gray and smooth, likely a pebble from a river.
It's surface was covered in thousands of miniscule runes, some were painted, others carved - how did the giant manage to make them this small was a mystery.
After a thorough examination of the pebble he was ready to finally use it.
The summoned people would most likely appear some distance from the beacon, so he moved away from the gate, he didn't want any of them getting transported back into the barrier.
He started feeding the stone his magic, and quickly noticed that it was far more demanding than an average enchanted object.
Calen was aware that spacial magic was very advanced and complex, but it was still much more than he expected.
Didn't Koravel say this magic was commonly used? He was starting to suspect the old man might not have been entirely truthful with him.
The rock started glowing, and it was growing brighter by the second, until it exploded in his hand in a flare of blinding light.
When he regained his sight, three silhouettes were standing around him.